A very civilised day!

Today was a day off in our itinerary and we were free to do our own thing. There were options of hiring bikes, visiting temples or tofu villages, but we were all content to stay local and have a quiet day.

Anita, Erin, Ailsa and I walked down to the river and found a little cafe where we read books for a couple of hours. We then walked back to a very nice place overlooking the bridge - the Viewpoint - and treated ourselves to a very posh lunch. The set menu was three courses and came out served beautifully in long lacquerware platters the length of the table.

We met back at the hotel at 4pm for a trip up to a local vinyard, the Red Mountain Winery, which was a 15 minute tuktuk ride out of Naungshwe. I don't think any of us expected to find such a professional set up and were surprised at the scale of the enterprise. They were set up by a German winemaker about five years ago and now have several varieties of grape. They had enormous steel vats and impressive looking machinery from Italy, including their own bottling line.

We were seated outside with a beautiful vista down the hillside towards the lake in the distance. The wine tasting included a Shiraz-Tempranillo, Chardonnay and a couple of other white and rose wines. It was a very nice way to finish a lovely day, wrapped up with grilled fish at the Four Sisters restaurant.